You’ve been slimed by Karl Rove

News of Karl Rove’s departure is big today, but it might be bigger news in the years to come.

Rove is the guy that Democrats love to hate. He is reviled by so many because he’s so good at what he does. He engineered the unthinkable — the Republican takeover of Texas and the improbable ascension of George W. Bush — in short order.

A talkative fellow

I ran into Rove during his salad days in Texas, when his candidates were unstoppable. I worked in the Houston Chronicle’s capitol bureau. Rove would call us a lot to leak info, float trial balloons and otherwise spin things for the reporters covering his candidates.

Much of it was dead-on information about investigations of other campaigns, or missteps of other candidates. Sometimes, however, it was laughable stuff. The veteran reporters I worked with would roll their eyes when told Rove was on hold. Or they’d laugh after the call was over.

“What’s up?” someone would ask.

“I just got slimed by Rove again,” would be the reply.

One nation, under God, divided by Rove

There’s no disputing Rove’s genius in the art of modern elections. He re-shaped the political fortunes of the nation’s biggest Democratic state and, in doing so, helped change the politics of the nation.

It came at a cost. Politics ceased being a free exchange of different views and became a vindictive blood sport, polarizing the nation. For that, Rove should be blamed, not credited.

Rove told the Wall Street Journal that he wanted to spend more time with his family. But also, he suggested things were changing.

The difficulty of the war overshadowed economic gains and led to the moment that might have sealed Rove’s fate. In the midterm beatdown of 2006, Bush and Rove were the lone voices in the wilderness, both boldly predicting GOP victory.

It didn’t happen that way, and political circumstances haven’t changed. Bush’s polling numbers remain frighteningly low, even with a Democrat-controlled Congress that has crappier numbers than my cholesterol count. Republican Senators are bailing on Bush’s war plans right and left, and the 8 zillion GOP candidates dare not speak his name.

Rove’s departure is the symbolic end of the Bush years, and only time will tell if it’s the beginning of bad times for Republicans.

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